Descendants: Stories Unfold
by Werepuppy Black
Summary: Following on from the movie, how do the lives of the Rotten Four and their new-found friends continue now that they've chosen good? Can a person change from their roots so completely? Does public perception change over night? What about the lives that they lived, what effect will they have on the lives that they're trying to live now. Collection of one-shots, all characters.
1. The Incident

The voice is shaking with fury, as wide eyes looked up. "I want him dead."

Dark eyes explored the face of the speaker, looking for any type of hesitance, anything to show that it was all just anger speaking. "...Dead, I can do."

* * *

Ben, newly crowd King of the United States of Auradon, was not doing too well in his love life. Apart from the media ripping his girlfriend to shreds near enough every single day, he didn't actually have much in the way of free time to be able to go around and see her. When he did? Well, turned out she wasn't handling the constant ripping apart in the news so well. He had laughed about it in front of her, surprised that she – of all the people that could have been in this situation – she was the one freaking out and taking it badly. Thinking that it meant something about who she was.

She hadn't really been pleased with that.

But they were stronger than one little upset, and they were still happy together. For as much as the media loved making her out to be the next plague on their home, they also loved praising her looks and her outfits. The way she smiled when he held her head and the way his ring shone brightly against her porcelain pale skin. Move over Snow White, one popular fashion and society blog declared, There's A New Fairest Of Them All. (Mal had hated the butchering of basic grammar, Ben had thought it sweet how much the blogger clearly thought of her.) He takes her everywhere that comes to mind, all the best places that Auradon has to offer, no expense spared because he knows that she deserves this. After everything she'd been through, he knows that luxury is something that should be given to her as often as possible.

He doesn't know what sets it off.

They had been having dinner, in a private back room of Tiana's Palace, and their conversation had been light and cheerful, filled with laughter from both of them. Everything had been cooked to perfection, and filled with firsts for Mal, her eyes lighting up in delight at the tastes, noises of sheer pleasure making him laugh under his breath. He could bring her so many firsts, they hadn't even began to look at the tip of the iceberg of what was in dinner, they had retired to his own small cottage. It looked a lot like the one where his Mother grew up, in basic looks alone. Filled to the top with everything that had been part of his daily life growing up, it was his, granted to him on his coronation that he may have a place where no one could invade his needed privacy. It was perfect, and she was perfect, and to him, the entire night was perfect.

Then it wasn't and she was gone and he didn't even know what had happened. He had been left, sitting there, jacket thrown to the side and tie undone, staring at the ground, utterly confused.

* * *

"Mal? Please, Mal, I just want to apologise!" Ben sighed, as he pressed his forehead against the wood of the dorm room door. "You can't hide in there forever, Mal. Fairy Godmother says you've already missed two whole day of classes and if you miss a third that's you on automatic detention for two weeks. Two weeks, Mal!" He called in, not really caring what any passers-by thought. Seeing their King, begging at the door of his girlfriend – his evil girlfriend – what hope that must inspire in a people? "Mal, come on, you're being ridiculous!" That got the door opening.

"Ridiculous, really?" Evie's perfectly groomed eyebrow rose just slightly. "You really think that's the best way to get her speaking to you again? By telling her she's being ridiculous?" She shook her head, an incredulous laugh coming from the back of her throat. "What do they put in the water, here?" There was something in her tone, something that Ben couldn't place, but it was nothing he'd every heard from Evie's voice before, except once. Confronting Chad on Family Day. Had... had he done something as rude as Chad had done? "She's not here, anyway. Hasn't been here the past couple of days. I'd love to know why, exactly," Evie continued, not even giving Ben a chance to speak for himself, "that instead of being happy, she came in from a date with you shaking and pale?"

"She ran out," Ben said. "Probably took a quick way back here and got lost and... I don't even know why she ran, Evie," Ben admitted, a slight whine in his tone. "We had been having a great time, it had been one of the best evenings we'd had ever, and then... she just... ran." It was the sheer confusion in the tone that had Evie looking at him, her gaze softening slightly. He didn't know. Neither did she, truthfully. She just knew her friend was upset and Ben had something to do with it. Villain kids protected their own. She opened the door wide, and Ben stumbled in, shooting her a grateful smile.

Carlos looked over from the table, shaking his head and returning to the homework that he and Evie had clearly been working on. Looked to be advanced chemistry. Oh... that would explain why they had been ignoring him, Ben realised, grimacing as he turned to apologise. "Don't bother," Carlos said, "you didn't know we had this due. You would have shut up if you had." The youngest from the Isle had an odd way of being the most direct at times. Ben nodded, and Carlos shrugged, continuing with the work. To keep the peace, Ben went over to give Dude a hello scratch behind the ears. The campus mutt – well, no, now he was Carlos' dog – growled at him, which made everyone stare.

"That's... never happened before." Ben said, looking at them with worry. Evie folded her arms and shot a questioning look at Carlos, who just shook his head in return. Whatever they were saying with their small glances and gestures, it meant that a whole conversation was happening in front of Ben that he wasn't privvy to. And judging by the glances they were giving him, he wasn't quite sure if this was a conversation that he wanted to become particularly involved in, if truth be told. "But... Evie, you're Mal's best friend," he said, turning to face the blue haired girl. "Her oldest friend, can't you..." He was interrupted by a loud snort of laughter from Carlos, and Evie biting her bottom lip, laughing herself. "Wait, what's so funny?"

"Well," Carlos put down his pen and looked up, "kind of how you're wrong, really," he said. Ben stared. Evie took pity.

"I'm not Mal's best or her oldest friend," she said, touching Ben's shoulder gently. "I'd only known her, all of them, a few months before we were brought here. It's just, well, you bond fast or you kill each other trying on the Isle," Evie gave as an explanation. "I'm fairly sure I'm her best female friend, that's an honour I can say it mine," she added, a private smile on her face. An honour? Ben didn't get it. Well, no, he did get it, but he didn't get why Evie would refer to it that way.

"So, it would be..." Ben turned to Carlos automatically, who was shaking his head. "Then who?" Ben exclaimed, baffled by the whole thing. He threw himself down on the edge of one of the beds, messing up the neat sheets but not having it in him to care as he pulled at his hair in frustration. After all Mal, Evie and Carlos were inseparable, if it wasn't one of those two that Mal was closest to then who was it that he'd need to go to get some help in working out exactly what it was he was meant to have done here to have made Mal so mad at him? "The files linked you three as the closest, Jay was just..." his voice died in his throat, and he looked up, eyes wide. " _Jay_?" he croaked. The two others nodded.

"Jay and Mal, or well, Mal and Jay really," Carlos said. "It's always been those two. Before any of us."

"They're the original Rotten Duo," Evie added, a shrug of the shoulders seeming one of the most graceful movements in the world when she used it. "Terrified the whole Isle and you had to hope you didn't end up in their sight. If you hurt one, the other came looking." Ben paled. Significantly.

* * *

Jay found him, just like Evie had warned. Ben didn't realise it was Jay until he looked up in shock after being sent slamming backwards into a row of metal lockers, locks digging into his back. The worst of it was that Jay hadn't even shoved him that hard, it had been a nudge. Ben just hoped that strength was all Jay had on his side, Jafar had been transformed into one of the most powerful genies that ever existed after all. Hunting him down to get him on the Isle had been a challenge, back in his Father's reign, and there was a fear that magical barrier being broken might mean the return of that power. They had never considered his son. He was a thief, a street rat. Watch your pockets, but that was it. Now Ben was wondering if watch your neck would be a better warning.

"One promise." Jay said simply. "We got you to make one promise, bro, and you broke it." There was a darkness in his voice. "She wants you dead. Dead... is something I do _really_ well," there was a mirthless smile on his face as he continued, stepping forward, the large bulk of his frame blocking the light out from Ben's view, "or do your little files not let you into that fact?" Ben's mouth opened and closed, and he jumped as Jay's fist slammed into the locker beside him. The locker buckled, and mentally Ben told himself it was the weakness of the thin metal they used, but somehow that didn't reassure him. "One promise, and you broke it."

"I don't even know what I'm meant to have done," Ben got out, eyes wide and voice thankfully not quavering. "It was all going... she just ran, Jay, I don't even know why. I've been trying to find out and I can't find her to ask why." This didn't make the other boy seem any happier. He didn't even seem to believe him, lifting an eyebrow in mocking questioning. "I swear. I would never hurt her, not Mal. I love her," Ben breathed the words out, his heart aching with how true they were. Jay's jaw clenched and his knuckles tightened. "I swear," Ben said again, "Mal... she's... I do love her."

"Then make sure you let her know that," the words were a threat when they eventually came. "Because she wouldn't want you dead if she didn't care so damn much." That was a bit of a revelation, but not much else was said from it. Jay straightened up, and stormed off in the opposite direction of Ben, his every step a stomp on the ground. People jumped out of his way, scared of the aura he seemed to be projecting. Ben felt like he had gotten away with more than just his life, but he wasn't sure what, exactly. He looked at the retreating figure, waiting until the fearful pounding in his chest stopped. Why did he feel like Jay would have been happier to not be walking away from this?

* * *

"You... why do you think I should accept that as an apology?"

"Because you're still wearing my ring, Mal. You still love me as much as I love you."

"...Things were a lot easier on the Isle."

"I don't think love's meant to be easy."

"Don't think it'd make me so happy if it was."


	2. Nice is Boring

_Inspired by another fic that I cannot remember the name of for the life of me. I wish I did, as it's a good fic and has a very interesting premise. "Freddie's brother" is not technically a canon character and yet, he's not an OC. To me, Freddie's brother is the guy we see during Rotten to the Core, at the scarf stall, who seems to be very intrigued by Evie and who Evie seems to be quite happy to flirt with. I've always head-canoned him as the son of Dr. Facillier, so he has become Freddie's older brother._

* * *

"You know what? Nice is boring." Mal's announcement was very odd as she entered the dorm room, especially considering that she had just come back from a date with Ben. It had been about two months since the coronation, meaning two months of steady dates. She flopped forward, landing on to her mattress with a flump, letting out a groan, hands grasping and pulling the duvet around her. Evie looked over from her seat behind her sewing machine.

"I thought Ben made you happy?" She asked, returning her attention to the outfit she was working on. A frown crossed over her face at a line of sloppy stitching, rolling her eyes at another groan coming from Mal's direction. "You were the one who said it. Pretty publically as well, how many sites reported on it? 'King's Pure Heart Redeems Daughter of Darkness,' that was the headline, wasn't it?" Another groan from the 'daughter of darkness' in question, who threw a pillow in Evie's direction. It missed, and fell pathetically on the floor.

"I hate the media," Mal's voice was muffled, until she pushed herself up from her position on the mattress. She sighed and shrugged. "Yeah, he makes me happy, but it's not... It's the happy I feel when I spend time with _friends_ , E," she said eventually. "Also, he's really not my type," Mal added with casual indifference. This was what got Evie to pay more attention.

"You've dated all of _one_ person, M, you don't know enough to know if you have a type or not." She placed the material down, having unpicked the row of stitches, and carefully rubbed her eyes. When working at her machine, Evie tended to forgo her usual eye make up style as she had a habit of rubbing said eyes when they felt sore from staring at small stitching. The days she chose to hand sew something were worse, she was too much of a perfectionist for her own good.

"Don't need to date to work out what I like," Mal shot back. Evie opened her mouth then closed it, giving a shrug of defeat.

"Okay, so you've got a point there," she said, "but still... maybe you and Ben are just having a slump. Relationships do have them, you know." Mal gave a dark look that Evie ignored. "You can't just come in and decide that nice is boring when maybe it's just... you're hitting the slump after the high." There was a very graceful shrug to finish the sentence. "And if you do have a type, why have I never heard about what it is?" Mal coloured slightly. "Oh!" Evie jumped up from her seat, and ran over to her friend. "I know that look, there's a story here. Okay, spill all! It's not Freddie's brother is it? Only he's my ex and _friend code_ , Mal!"

Mal sighed, and opened her mouth. Then the door opened and Jay came through, still in his tourney gear. "...The hell are you doing coming in without knocking?" Mal said.

"Carlos told me to come here," he explained, pulling out a chair at the table, turning it round, and sitting down. "He ran off to get something as soon as practice was done, and told me to come here." He shrugged. "Guess he'll be along in a few." He glanced over at Mal, looking her up and down. "So... Benny-boo skipped practice for a date?" He rolled his eyes. "And he was the one telling us we couldn't skip practice for anything." He laughed as Mal shot him another glare. The door opened again, and Carlos came in, a laptop tucked under his arm that he quickly set on the table.

"That's Ben's laptop," Mal said. "Jay?" He held up his hands in defence, readying to speak when Carlos beat him to it.

"I know it's Ben's, he asked me to fix it for him," the youngest of the villain kids explained, opening the laptop and booting it up. His fingers moved quickly over the keyboard. "I don't know what he did to it to get it in the situation it was, but I had to go right in and pull forward all his deleted files – they never wipe away completely," he added in explanation, looking up and seeing the questioning gazes. "At least, if anyone asks? That's why I dragged them up," there was a mischievous grin crossing Carlos' face, and it drew soft laughter from the others. Even being Good? Some habits were hard to kill. He finished working, and spun the laptop around, files already up on the screen.

"So, these are just the plans about bringing us to Auradon," Evie said, giving them a quick glance. "There's nothing shocking about these." Carlos shook his head.

"To quote a wise old monkey? No, look closer," he pressed a button, enlarging the size of the text on screen. "Seriously, we're taking you to get your eyes tested," Carlos said with gentle concern. "Mal, don't let her near that sewing machine till we do."

"Got it," Mal said, arms folded as she leant into the screen, brow furrowing as she read. She wasn't the only one with an expression of disbelief. Evie's eyes had widened, and Jay's face had set in a look that Carlos recognised as being a sign to duck and cover. "This has to be a set up," she said. "These cannot be real files." She looked up at Carlos with a dangerous green gleam in her eyes. "What are you up to?"

"Not me, and I checked, Mal," he said, stepping backwards from the table. "No one had access to the laptop but Ben. He kept it password protected and changed the password regularly. Even his files are password protected, he's got trust issues." Mal straightened, and gave a nod, turning round and moving to sit on her bed. She was expressionless, and the others exchanged glances. Jay moved over, leaning against one of the bed posts. He looked over at Evie and Carlos, who gave him go on gestures. He sighed.

"Mal, this... this doesn't change anything, you know..."

"I never would have started dating him if we hadn't needed the love spell," Mal said, looking at no one but at the wall instead. "I told Evie he's not my type. And he's not. But we needed the break because we got lucky, we got to Auradon." She turned to look at Jay, and he stepped backwards at the fury in her eyes. "Only he didn't bring us because he's just the 'nice' type, he brought us because he had a crush on me from virtual stalking, and he was bored of 'good girls'." The silence in the room rang loud. Mal gave a noise that was something like a laugh, shaking her head and looking away again. The silence continued, before eventually, Jay shrugged, his lips quirked up, hints of a familiar old smile appearing.

"So you get our revenge."

"Jay!" Evie's voice was a mix of emotions and she came over to sit beside Mal, a hand gently placed on her friend's arm. "Mal's emotionally compromised, you can't just think she'll want reve..."

"He's right," Mal shot in. "I get revenge. We all do." She took in a deep breath, thinking quickly. "Carlos? I want an online smear campaign, untraceable or at least something that can't be traced back to us. Leaked files, repeated phrases: not her type, nice is boring, stuff like that." Carlos nodded. "Evie, you're working on an alteration for Audrey?" Evie gave a nod.

"She paid good money, and I need more material," she explained to Jay and Carlos. "Auradon has cute designs, but none in my colours or preferred fabrics." There was a look that dared them to argue with her. Evie was particular about certain things and you didn't argue with her on it. Mal might be able to patch together old stuff to make it fit her look, but Evie had to be put together in exactly the right way. It was her thing, and if Mal accepted it with no problems, then the boys should as well – and yes, Mal's acceptance had become more important to Evie in her time knowing the girl.

"Alter it, but not the way she wants," there was a special kind of viciousness in Mal's grin, that Evie couldn't help but mirror. Audrey was easy for knowing how to hit, Mal had spent far too long on working out her own plans for Sleeping Beauty and family. Actually meeting Audrey had made it even easier to know exactly what to do. "Ah, there's my vicious little Princess," Mal said, catching the grin on Evie's face. Slipping back into old habits was putting on a comfortable coat, you wondered why you ever stopped in the first place. She turned to Jay, and raised an eyebrow. "You know what I'll need?"

"When have I not?" he responded with a shrug. Mal's grin grew sharp.

"Let's remind Benny-boo what 'bad' girls do."

* * *

Beast and Belle heard of it first. Simple emails: 'did you ever wonder why those four', 'funny how quick your son dropped the daughter of the sleeping beauty', and 'evil tastes so much better.' They hadn't thought anything of them at first, just silly little emails of someone trying to stir up trouble. But they kept coming, and somehow get getting through their _very_ effective spam filters. This wasn't just someone wanting to stir up trouble, this was someone wanting them to think, or so Belle reasoned after her husband broke his third smart phone that week – the Enchantress' spell had some left over effects, none really got in the way unless he got angry or very annoyed.

Ben had told them that those four were the ones who needed the most help and having met them, neither Belle nor Beast could deny that they really did need help. Yes, it was a little odd that Ben seemed to break up with Audrey and get into a new relationship so quickly, especially considering how long he and Audrey had been dating. Beast could remember how long it took Ben to actually work up the courage to ask Audrey on their first real date, his son was not one for just leaping into things without proper consideration. For as many problems as Belle had with the girl – Aurora was lovely, her daughter needed some work – she couldn't deny that she and Ben had been happy together. Well, apart from the last … six months maybe? Ben had seemed a little annoyed each time he had come home from a date with her. Evil tastes so much better... that one had them confused. Oh, they had _ideas_ as to what it could mean, but... surely not? Not their son, no.

Then they got the news from the Fairy Godmother of the graffiti appearing over the school. Pastel pink, and written in a familiar hand, NICE IS BORING seemed to be everywhere, even over the sign of the school itself, with goodness having been scored out in the same shade of pastel pink. Audrey had been pulled into the Fairy Godmother's office, and repeatedly denied ever doing such a thing. Why would she think nice was boring? She was the epitome of nice! The paints had been found in her locker though, but not even the best actor in the world could have portrayed Audrey's genuine surprise at them being there.

Of course, Mal had been brought in as well to be questioned. She was the resident graffiti artist of the school. A pity really that she refused to use her talents in more productive manners, she could have been winning the art competitions for Auradon Prep easily. The daughter of Maleficent had simply raised her eyebrows and asked if anyone actually thought she would use pink of all the colours in the world. Rude, yes, but there was also truth in it. Besides which, the writing was not in her hand, and Fairy Godmother could confirm how different the handwriting was. Mal's was far less elegant than the one currently blaring their message at all the students. It seemed that all the signs pointed to one thing.

A rebellion was beginning.

And the obvious suspects weren't the answer this time around.

At least, they were about 85% sure of that.

* * *

Ben was exhausted. Not from being King – most of his duties were deferred until his education was finished – but from how many 'talks' his parents had been having with him lately. Carlos had managed to fix his laptop, but now his parents wanted to check all his history. Ben was glad he deleted stuff before handing the laptop into Carlos, otherwise he'd probably have more 'talks' to deal with than the amount he already had. Audrey was getting on at him as well, mostly because everyone seemed to believe she was behind the graffiti. He didn't, she was way too good to even think of defacing public property accidentally never mind intentionally. He had to admit the evidence was stacked against her though. He more pleased it wasn't stacked against Mal, he'd hate for people to have any reason to want to send her in particular back to the Isle. It had been a lot of work to get her to Auradon in the first place.

The four of the Isle kids were all fitting into life in Auradon really well. As well as basically being the play-maker for the tourney team, Carlos had managed to integrate himself with the tech kids. Evie was loved by the 'nerds' as Chad put it as well as anyone who had a taste for fashion. Jay was flirting with anyone who looked his way, and seemed happy enough with that. As for Mal, well she might not have gotten into any school clubs, but Ben thought that their relationship was going great – especially when he compared it to how stale his relationship with Audrey had become before he had broke up with up in favour of Mal. That really had been a good move.

He grinned to himself, thinking of their last great date. He didn't notice that anyone who looked at him turned to whoever was nearest to start muttering about those weird little emails that had been going out. It was no secret that nearly every student at Auradon Prep had found Ben's sudden asking Mal out after that big tourney game to be strange. Well, sort of strange. No one had missed the looks he had been giving the girl before hand, though Ben seemed to be oblivious to the fact that she wasn't returning them. Really, it was strange that they were still dating, and also that Ben has asked her out when he was technically still dating Audrey. (Some of the royal students were confused as they were fairly certain there was meant to have been an engagement between Audrey and Ben since they were young, but then again, Queen Belle could have done away with _that_ tradition, she'd done away with plenty of others.) Still, all the emails did was start up the questions that had died down after the coronation. Why did Ben bring those four to their school, and why did he seem to quick to want to date Mal, especially when he already had a great girlfriend. Oh, yeah, Audrey was a bit shallow but she was still nice! Most of the time.

With those messages appearing around the school: not just nice is boring, but also 'evil tastes so much better' which had been appearing in a lighter blue paint over the past couple of days, in another familiar hand. Ben hadn't been in school much to see it, but the messages were there, bright enough for anyone to notice and people were noticing. And asking questions, and whispering, and pointing. For being King? So far Ben was proving to be very unobservant.

"Hey bro," Jay's voice cut into Ben's thoughts and he looked up. Jay was looking down at a copy of the school newspaper – they did a printed edition as well as their online blog – frowning slightly. "You, uh, you read this? Only it's kind of..." Jay trailed off, giving a nervous laugh. "Maybe you should just read it," he said instead, thrusting the paper at Ben. Confused, Ben took the paper, and looked down at the article Jay had left it open to. There, in full colour print, were screencaps and transcripts of the files that he was sure he had deleted. Files that showed other reasons for wanting to bring Mal in particular to Auradon. Panicking, but keeping as calm a face as he could manage, Ben handed the paper back to Jay.

"I need to find Carlos," he said, turning around. He didn't have to look very far. The boy in question was standing at Mal's locker, holding a copy of the newspaper, reading it with Evie and Mal herself. None of them looked pleased. "Uh... hey Mal! That article in the paper... must be a slow news week, right?" He laughed, and nodded at Evie and Carlos, expecting them to back him up. "Jay just told me about it, and he thinks it's stupid too, right Jay?" He turned to the other boy, expecting back-up. They were bros, they had each other's backs. And if anyone could understand wanting someone around because of a crush, it would be Jay, right? When Jay quietly moved to stand beside Mal at her locker, speaking to her inaudibly, Ben felt a little more panic.

"Seriously, I don't even know where any of that came from," he said. "Carlos' has had my laptop for the past couple of weeks, it's not been working and he's good at fixing this type of thing so," he gabbled, giving a shrug as he tried to talk his way out of the article. "Unless... Carlos, you knock these up as some kind of prank?" Ben gave a laugh. That's what it had to be. Some elaborate prank that had gone wrong.

"I don't find any of this funny," Evie said, arms crossed over her chest. "And it's not just the article. Doug's told me about the emails people have been getting: asking just why you decided on us four in particular, and why you dropped Audrey so quickly." Ben frowned.

"I can't even get your laptop connecting to the net," Carlos said, closing the paper over and looking up. "So... no, I didn't 'knock these up' as a prank," he sounded insulted. "Also? Like you just pointed out: _I've got your laptop_." The emphasis on the words was clear. Carlos had his laptop. Carlos, who was very good with techology had his laptop. Carlos had access to all of his files, even deleted ones. And, to make matters worse? Carlos had been given all of that access by Ben himself. He slowly became aware of Mal's eyes, glaring at him.

"I can explain," he started.

"There's no need to explain, Ben," Mal said, her voice calm. "I completely understand." Ben let out a breath. "Your intentions when bringing me over here were pure."

"That's just, I knew you would understand," he started. Mal held up her hand. He stopped.

"You didn't let me finish," she said, still in that calm voice. "Your intentions were pure because Auradon kids really don't have a concept of anything beyond hand-holding, hugging, and maybe an occasional kiss." Her face fell, and there was a green gleam to her eyes that he'd never noticed before. It wasn't the type of thing that made him feel particularly comfortable at seeing, either. "I can't believe it. So much for 'I want to give the villain kids a chance'." Mal scoffed. "You wanted a chance to hit on me. You brought me here so you could get that chance." Her voice was angry, and accussing, and despite it all, Ben couldn't help but feel the need to fight back.

"It's not exactly like you're innocent, Mal," he said. "Or are we forgetting a little spell?" His voice dropped when mentioning the spell, but Mal rolled her eyes.

"Without that spell, we wouldn't be dating." She made a noise of disgust, shaking her head and looking away. "Worst mistake of my life. You're _really_ not my type." Ben stared? Not her type? Oh come on, she had put him under a love spell because she had a crush on him! Also, he had files on them all – he knew she hadn't dated before coming to Auradon. Really, with that in mind, it was little surprise that he started to laugh.

"Not your type? Oh come on, be serious Mal," he said, reaching a hand to place it carefully on her arm. She wrenched her arm out of the way and Ben shook his head, looking at her in complete confusion. "Mal, you didn't even know what love was till we started dating," There was a sharp silence from the four villain kids, but Ben continued on. "How can you even be sure if you have a type?" His question wasn't unreasonable, but given the mood Mal was in? It was certainly not the smartest thing for anyone to have said, no matter who they were. Mal didn't reply. Instead, she raised an eyebrow at Ben, and turned away. Ben thought she was turning to leave.

He was _wrong_. Oh, was he wrong.

He watched, with an odd churning in his stomach, as Mal grabbed the front of Jay's shirt, pulling the taller boy down to her height and pressed her mouth to his, kissing him quite insistently. To make matters worse? Jay didn't flinch, wrapping an arm around Mal, lifting her a little, and kissing back. There was a stunned silence from Ben, Carlos and Evie as they watched what was becoming an uncomfortably long kiss. Eventually, and much to their deep joy, the two stepped away from each other. Mal turned back to face Ben.

"I worked it out. Pathetic doesn't do it for me." And with that, she walked away. There was a moment of stunned silence from three people, while one leant against the lockers smirking. Ben shot Jay a look, before walking off in the other direction, muttering angrily to himself. There was silence as Carlos and Evie exchanged looks. Well, that was... They meant to say that... Actually, they weren't sure how they should react to anything that had just happened. Slowly, and tentatively, the silence was broken.

"So... that's what Mal needed from you, right?" Carlos said. "As part of the whole revenge plan?"

"Oh, it had to be part of the plan," Evie said quickly, "there's no way Mal would do anything like that unless it was part of a plan. Right, Jay?" They both looked at him. Jay straightened up and stepped forward, clapping Carlos on the shoulder. He smirked wider, and walked off in the direction Mal had gone.

Carlos and Evie couldn't stop staring.


	3. Nice IS Boring But it is Nice

_Direct follow on from "Nice is Boring." After a few hours, Ben and Mal have a chat about... well, things. Because, dammit, I like Ben and he's really a sweet guy who just got too caught up with horomones. Also, I'm sorry, Ben/Mal shippers. I really do find the pairing ridiculously cute, which is why I decided to write a follow up. I just... I couldn't fix what had been broken though._

* * *

Jay was proud of being a thief. More to the point, he was proud of being the best thief out of all of them on the Isle of the Lost, which meant he was leagues beyond any pocket picker that happened to exist on Auradon. Mal was a close second for his talents back on the Isle, but he had a few little tricks up his sleeve that she couldn't manage, mostly because of her Mom, but that wasn't the point. The point was this: being a thief made you pay attention to things that most people didn't think about straight off. That they were going to school in a castle that had existed 300 years previous to being made into a school? That was something he paid attention to, and so where all the little passage ways that hadn't been closed off that got a person around the school quickly, and out of the grounds after curfew without being spotted. Those passage ways are how he ended up at Mal's dorm before Ben after the two had went off to have their argument following Mal's very public kissing of him.

Evie and Carlos thought that was part of the plan. They weren't entirely wrong.

"You weren't supposed to kiss back," Mal doesn't turn to look at him, laying on her bed and staring at the canopy as if it held the answers to the question about what to do following the revenge plot. Oh, parts of it were still going to go on for the rest of the week, to get the point across, but her rather public part was done and now she just had to wait. She hated the waiting part, it was far too boring. Jay walked over, and leant against the bedpost. Mal pushed herself up and looked at him in return, an eyebrow raised in his direction. "So," she started, hints of a smirk appearing, "you just going to stand there, or you actually going to do something?"

Jay smirked back.

* * *

Ben had been stopped by Chad on his way to catch up with Mal and, despite it all, he was actually happy to see his childhood friend. That was, until Chad opened his mouth and started talking about how he never knew Ben had it in him, and if it was just a bit of boredom, Chad could give him names from the sacred little black book he kept. Ben had listened to Chad continuing to ramble about how he had always thought it was weird that Ben had been willing to tie himself down to Audrey so quickly, but knowing he had his eye on other girls made it all make sense. Keep the respectable girlfriend for the parents, while having your fun on the side. Of course, Chad added, he didn't agree with the going and getting a villain for a girlfriend, but Ben was promptly asked to let Chad know if the rumours were true, if evil really did 'taste better.'

That had caused Ben to wander around the school in a daze for at least two hours before he finally ended up at Mal's dorm room door. No wonder she took her revenge, just listening to the way Chad laid it all out made Ben want to punch himself. Of course she was offended – anyone would be offended. Maybe her revenge wasn't even enough, Ben though, maybe he deserved to suffer a bit more. It was odd, really. He had been friends with Chad for years, but the son of Cinderella had only really let his philandering ways out since the past year, and it had really soured their friendship. Not that Chad noticed. Ben wondered how the hell Jane was still able to be friends with the guy, but then again, he was completely different around her. Maybe it was a fairy tale thing. He sighed, pushing the thought out of his mind, and knocked on the door.

"Mal?" he said. "It's Ben." There was no response, but he could hear Mal's tut of annoyance. He gave a soft laugh to himself, looking at the ground. "Yeah, I wouldn't want to talk to me either if I were you," he admitted. "I, uh, I ran into Chad and... there's a reason I keep that guy around, he's really good at making me realise when I've done something really big on the jerk scale," he laughed again, slightly sadder this time. "So, yeah, I get not wanting to talk to me. I just... I wanted to apologise," he finished, looking at the door and wondering just what Mal was thinking. The door opened, and Ben found himself having to quickly stop Mal from falling over. He looked up.

"You're the one who said it M," Jay said, "I know what you need." Mal glared at him, before pushing Ben off her and stepping to the side. She sighed, crossing her arms.

"You have five minutes, Benny-boo, and it had better be good," The threat didn't need to be said, it was too clear in her tone. Ben nodded, glancing and mouthing a thank you at Jay. He got a glare in return. Wow, yeah, he really had to make it up to all of the kids from the Isle, not just Mal. It's just... Mal had to be the priority, he had hurt her the most in all of this. "Well? Time's ticking and my fingers are getting really itchy to try out this very wicked spell I read."

"I did want to help you, all of you," Ben said, nodding over at Jay. "I just... I guess I let my fantasies run away with my actual plans," he shrugged, knowing that nothing he said would make this any better. "Last year, when they started to prepare me properly to become King? Part of my duties were to manage the surveillance. I saw how bad it was out there for you guys and... I thought I could do something to help," he gave another shrug. Mal and Jay exchanged glances. "And yeah, I did focus what I was doing too much on you, Mal, but you were so... different to any other girl I'd ever seen..."

"What's wrong with every other girl?" Mal spat at him. "I may not like most people here, but my dislike is earnt. Oh, and little piece of info for you?" She leant in. "Apologising by admitting the person was a novelty, not a smooth move."

"Mal," Jay spoke quietly. She whipped her head round, and he held up his hands. "I'm not disagreeing. Just... let him talk." He looked tired, and Mal's shoulder's relaxed. She turned back to face Ben, giving him a motion that told him to continue, but be quick about it. She was loosing what little patience she had.

"She's right," Ben said. "You're right, Mal, I shouldn't... I just don't know how else to explain it. You were different, and I wanted to know you better. That was it. I promise." He rubbed at the back of his neck. "I know my word doesn't mean much right now, but bringing you four here was about helping you. That it gave me a chance to maybe get to know you was just... It was something that made me push harder than I probably would have maybe risked against my Dad," he admitted. "He's a great guy, but that temper..."

"I know what you mean," Mal said softly. She looked away. "This isn't something I can just forgive, Ben. Good reasons or not, you still spied on me, you still kept pictures," there was a crack in her voice, and Ben resisted the urge to step forward. Trying to make any physical contact now, when he had hurt her? No, that wasn't a good idea. "And yeah, I love spelled you, and that makes everything about our relationship a sham," she looked at him. "So we're both in the wrong here."

"But neither of us can move forward the way... one of us might want, can we?" Ben asked, a sad smile on his face. Mal stared, emotionless for a moment or two, before a mirroring smile appeared on her face, nodding slowly in agreement. "I figured," Ben said softly, his mouth pulling at the corner to try to smile wider but not being able to manage it. "So... this... you and, um, you and Jay...?"

"We've got history," Jay spoke up, "but it's not like that."

"Never has been like that," Mal added. "That doesn't mean it couldn't have been, though." She met Jay's gaze, and there was a moment of silence in which Ben felt like he might have been intruding on a very personal moment. He coughed lightly, and Mal looked away. "The land of what could have been isn't somewhere I visit though, I only deal in harsh realities, and our reality is this, Ben. Whatever we had? Whatever we could be? It's broken, and it's not the broken you can fix."

"I didn't think it was," Ben agreed softly. "I just... I hope," he stopped himself. "I would like, if it's possible, maybe, at some point, we could consider being friends?" His smile was a little warmer, though there was still a lot of sadness there. "You're someone I'd hate to not know anymore, Mal. But it's up to you, I … I've ruled out my right to decide here," he said. Mal stepped forward, and placed her hand on his shoulder, giving a small squeeze.

"It'll take some time," she admitted, "but I don't think I'd like not knowing you anymore either." Her hand dropped, and she stepped away from both boys. "Right now, what I really need is just... I need to go and be me. The real me," she added, smirking slightly. "I've been playing a role for two months too long, and I think I need to remember who Mal really is." She smiled, and turned away, walking down the hall with her head held high. Ben and Jay watched her go.

"She means a lot to you, doesn't she?" It was a question Ben had never really wanted to ask, but now... "That's why you kissed her back when it wasn't part of her plan." Jay looked at the King, who just gave a look. "Come on, it was kind of obvious." There was a soft laugh.

"You're going to be a great King when we get out of this place," Jay commented. "Yeah, she does," he answered the question. "I don't know what exactly it is that she means, but there's not a lot that I wouldn't do for her." There was a moment of silence shared by the boys, both wearing similar expressions of just knowing when they were in deep with no real way of gaining control. Soon enough, Ben reached out, and clapped Jay on the shoulder.

"Does she realise? The effect she can have?"

"No." Jay answered. He stepped out of the room, and turned to Ben. "But if she did, she wouldn't be Mal."

Ben couldn't do anything but nod in agreement.


End file.
